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(San Diego, Calif.) - Like all USD athletic teams, each year the USD men's basketball program gets involved with numerous community service outreach programs. One group they have established a special bond with is the Poway Youth Basketball League's Challenged Division. The PYBL Challenged League is open to all players with intellectual disabilities. The division has been around for over 20 years and has grown from a handful of players to more than 100 participants.

Stated Margot Morpeth, PYBL Challenged Division Commissioner, "Our kids look forward to this evening every year and it is just phenomenal. We really appreciate and thank the USD basketball team for being involved with our program."

For the fifth straight year, head coach Bill Grier and the entire USD basketball team and staff held a clinic on opening night (January 7th) at Meadowbrook Middle School in Poway from 5:30-7:30 pm.

"I think it's an opportunity for our guys to give back and be involved with such a great program," said USD head coach Bill Grier. "It's a pretty special night for us. I've said this many times before when we've done this in the past, I think our guys get as much out of this as the Challenged League gets out of it. I know our guys look forward to it every year and they've developed relationships with a lot of these kids in this program. I think it's a fun night for everyone."

Following some energetic warm-up drills led by Torero assistant coach Mike Burns, the USD coaches and players organized the group into six stations and rotated them around to different baskets for a variety of drills. At the end of the evening some of the PYBL players got to go head-to-head against USD players in some fun one-on-one games. The highlight of the night was when PYBL player Matt Losey connected on a shot from half court!

The PYBL Challenged Division group, along with family members, will be attending USD's home game against the Pacific Tigers on February 1st to help cheer on the Toreros.